Smart glasses, AI ushering in new era of cheating on college campuses

"I'll need to check your glasses as well."

During a midterm exam for a social science writing course at Hankuk University of Foreign Studies' Seoul campus in April, a teaching assistant walked through the classroom inspecting students' eyewear one by one. The check was prompted by the recent emergence of AI-powered smart glasses and the cheating risks they pose.

With final exams now underway, universities are grappling with a new set of concerns around AI. Using generative AI tools such as ChatGPT to complete assignments has already become routine, and the rapid spread of wearable devices — smart glasses and wireless earbuds among them — is raising fresh alarms about a new breed of academic dishonesty.

Reports of AI-assisted cheating on online exams have been mounting, prompting responses from both students and institutions. Lee Won-jae, 27, a student at Hankuk University of Foreign Studies, emailed his professor last year after an online quiz in a financial management summer course was held with only one proctor present. "It was an environment where anyone who wanted to could easily use ChatGPT," he said. Two additional teaching assistants were subsequently assigned to monitor the exam.

Nam, 23, a business administration student at Yonsei University, said the school advises professors to avoid formats prone to cheating — such as AI-assisted, open-book or online exams — leaving the final call to each instructor. "All major business courses strictly prohibit AI use during exams," Nam said, adding that some courses also require students to disclose which AI tools they used on assignments and what prompts they entered.

Professors are sharpening their defenses against AI use. Some have adopted AI CopyKiller, a plagiarism-detection tool that now includes a function to flag text suspected of being AI-generated, on top of its existing plagiarism-checking features.

Concerns about wearable devices are also growing. Han Na-ri, 23, another student at Hankuk University of Foreign Studies, said professors have been warning students not to wear AirPods during class and expressing worry about AI cheating via smart glasses. "They also emphasize that assignments must be written in your own words," she said.

Koo Jeong-woo, a sociology professor at Sungkyunkwan University, said he encourages students to make active use of AI since it cannot be stopped, but acknowledged that concern about new technology is spreading among faculty. "There are no confirmed cases, but when a particular student's exam answers are far better than their grades in other courses, you start to wonder whether they used smart glasses," he said.

Some professors have turned to analog methods to preserve fairness. Lee Eun-hee, a consumer psychology professor at Inha University, said she designs assignments around personal experience and individual opinion, and opts for in-person handwritten exams rather than online ones. "The most primitive method is the most transparent and fair," she said.

On smart glasses in particular, she noted that while phones and smartwatches can be confiscated, glasses are harder to deal with because they may be a vision aid. "Once they become widely commercialized, they could become the biggest vulnerability in any exam room," she said.

The problem extends beyond universities. Two cases of cheating using AI smart glasses were reportedly detected at domestic TOEIC regular exams last month.

Education authorities are monitoring the situation closely. An official at the Korea Institute for Curriculum and Evaluation said the agency is working with the Ministry of Education and provincial education offices to develop countermeasures against cheating with smart devices, with plans to have steps in place before the September mock exam and the College Scholastic Ability Test.